Thursday, June 21, 2007

County OKs $10K in ambulance gear

by Kenneth Lassiter

County commissioners have approved two expenditures totaling nearly $10,000 for the ambulance department in moves geared to keep the department operating efficiently.

James Tweed, ambulance department director, and Tani Ruff, department financial manager, met with commissioners to discuss the purchases Monday. Tweed asked commissioners for permission to spend $2,176 to install car kits for the department’s cellular phones in all four of the county’s ambulances. The cost includes installation as well as antennas and setting up each ambulance with “bluetooth” technology to make the phones hands-free to allow paramedics to talk to hospital personnel or dispatchers while being able to use their hands to work on patients if needed.

Ruff said the option of taking each ambulance in to have the equipment installed was discussed but, with the cost of fuel, it was more efficient to have the equipment installed on site. Commissioners expressed some minor sticker shock on the purchase but agreed, as commissioner David Christy said the county “owes it to the patients” to have the new cell phones installed and working efficiently.

Tweed moved on to say that, during recent preventative maintenance of ambulance equipment, one of the county’s stretchers was discovered to have a cracked frame and wouldn’t be safe to be used to keep transporting patients. Tweed said the county’s options for purchasing a new stretcher are limited as the state only authorizes two vendors to sell the stretchers. The low bid Tweed received was to replace one stretcher for $4,075 or two for $7,500. Tweed said no maintenance contract had been in place on the old stretcher so the county’s hands are somewhat tied. He said he planned to replace two stretchers in 2008 but asked commissioners if they wanted to simply replace the damaged stretcher or buy two and save some money.

Commissioners were surprised at the cost of the stretchers but agreed that buying two was a wiser move so approved that purchase. Tweed said one of the current stretchers could be used as a backup stretcher and the damaged one has been taken out of county service.

Tweed and Susan Newell, 911 director, had met with commissioners prior to those discussions to talk to commissioners about a request made by Rock Creek Fire District No. 5. Newell said the fire district had made a verbal request to be the only ambulance unit called out to medical calls in its area between 142nd and 122nd streets. Fire District No. 11 in Valley Falls had previously been called out on those calls. Newell said the Rock Creek personnel making the request said the district had the trained staff to respond to such calls in that area.

Newell said she asked the district to make the request in writing to confirm it before it was put into place. She said dispatch usually sends three ambulances out to calls in that area, with the first one to respond usually calling off the others if they aren’t needed. Commissioners said they had no problem with the request as long as the public is still being served sufficiently. Christy said he wanted to be ensured that the district would be able to respond without problems.

“I’d rather have three ambulances respond and not need them than have none respond and need them,” Christy said. “The public is our number one concern here.”

Newell said when she gets the written confirmation of the request she would send back a confirmation letter and also notify Fire District No. 11 of the change.